Eye of the storm
by Lord of Daemons
Summary: The fabric of reality is threatened by the actions of one selfish being. Now faced with total destruction, the powers that be have risked everything to gain a champion, and that champion is Naruto.  Based on Jest795's Darkness is not evil challenge.
1. Prologue: Anomaly

**A/N: Hello readers I'm back! For all of you who read my story thank you! I hope this new one will be as enjoyable as my previous ones.**

**Moving on. This story actually started way back when as an attempt to revitalize the mess that Naruto: Gods and Demons had become. However I lost interest and it wasn't until Jest795 approached me with his darkness isn't evil challenge that I finally got a way to do so, so thank you Jest for your challenge and your help in working out ideas for this. On that note I would also like to say that in the course of coming up with ideas for said challenge I found myself borrowing ideas from the plots of MadHat886's fox lord story and 26 Lord Pain's dark lord plus stories so to them I say thanks to the both of them for giving me permission to borrow their ideas. Finally I would like to thank Dracohalo117 for his help with ironing out plot points for this story and his encouragement for my foray into original non-fanfiction based writing.**

**Thank you all and to anyone reading this story I ask that you not only review my story but also please take the time to read the above mentioned writers' stories and give them honest reviews.**

**One final thing, this is not only a dark but not evil Naruto story but also a mega-crossover and harem one with most of the girls not coming from the Naruto verse. Though with that said I should also say that who precisely is in the harem is up in the air at this time. Now with that out of the way, if any of what I just said upsets you, leave now and don't bother flaming cause I will just delete it! For everyone else, just sit back, enjoy, and please review once your done. Oh and just to be on the safe side I don't own anything in this story but my own original ideas and characters...Enjoy!**

**Prologue: Anomaly**

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><p>Free will or predetermination? This is one of the key questions that humanity asks itself when contemplating its existence. While many cling to the idea that our actions are all governed by a higher power there are many things that exist in this world and others that may shake one's faith in a divine plan or natural order of things. Acts of cruelty and degradation which make one wonder that if they were predetermined to happen then what the hell was the point of them all? And nothing shakes one's faith more than the suffering of the innocent.<p>

And on that note in the infinite expanse of the universe and its various alternate versions one of the most poignant examples one can find to discredit the idea of divine plan existed on one version of a particular world where he was currently dying alone in a forest within his home town.

His name was Naruto Uzumaki, a boy who seemed to be born to be fate's proverbial bitch. No matter what version of his life one viewed chances are 9.5 times out of 10 the boy was getting screwed by life. Not that he knew why...

The reason for his crap life can be traced back to the day of his birth. On that day of October the 10th, the village's leader and the fourth to hold the position of Hokage, Minato Namikaze faced with the threat of his village's apparent annihilation at the hands of the Kyuubi no Yoko (or 9 tailed demon fox) and believing in the words of his sensei Jiraiya the toad sage about an upcoming messiah sealed the demon within a newborn Naruto. His last wish before dying was that Naruto be seen as a hero for containing the fox...he was ignored.

Humans sadly cannot be counted among the most logical of creatures despite our great technological advancements. On the whole most people in their day to day lives are more likely to follow instinct and emotion than use logic, and while cold logic is by no means superior to raw emotion it for the most part tends to be better at preventing people from making rash and stupid decisions. Sadly the ninja village of Konoha did not use logic in this instant. They were in pain over the loss of their loved ones and the near total destruction of their homes. So starting on the very same day Naruto was both born and orphaned by the fox's attack the villagers, unable to take out their pain on the fox itself instead decided to take it out on its container Naruto.

For the most part the villagers did not do anything noticeably abusive to him heck they didn't even call him names for the most part. Which when one thinks about it was arguably worse than if they had insulted him because at least then he would have known why the hell everyone was doing there best to pretend he didn't exist.

You see when the fourth Hokage died his predecessor the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was forced to retake the reins of power. Sadly he underestimated how badly the common sense of the villagers would be overwhelmed by their emotions and told them of what the boy contained. One near riot later and Sarutobi had realized the error of his ways but by then it was too late. So in an attempt to make amends for what had happened Sarutobi made it so none could speak aloud what the boy contained to those that didn't already know on pain of death, not even Naruto himself was to know. In this way Sarutobi attempted to give Naruto a chance to bond with those both his own age and slightly older but still too young to recall the fox attack.

Unfortunately this plan quickly fell apart as the adults unable to take their frustrations out directly on Naruto, chose to do the next best thing by warning both their children and outsiders away from the boy and subjecting him to one of the worst fates a developing child can have. And that fate was the hell that was loneliness and neglect. And so for five going on nearly 6 years of his life did Naruto suffer this fate of a lonely hell...until today when his life became a literal one.

The source of the current mess he was in could be traced to what happened several days prior. It had started as a relatively decent day all told. Naruto had awoken in the small government subsidized apartment where he had lived alone since being booted out of the orphanage some months prior under the grounds of it being overcrowded (which sadly was not entirely untrue). After rubbing the tiredness out of his bright blue eyes and eating a lackluster breakfast of almost stale cereal the boy seemingly always chipper headed to the bathroom and washed up. He did his best to manage the unruly spiky mess that was his blond hair and then got dressed in a pair of blue sandals, a pair of orange striped black shorts, and a white shirt bearing a red version of the insignia worn by the village's elite ANBU ninja corp. Before leaving his apartment he had looked himself over in his bathroom mirror one last time, a million watt smile filling his whisker birthmark clad face and mentally thought to himself that this was going to be a good day...

Nearly one entire day of rejection and hateful glares later and Naruto was finally starting to realize that just because you think positive does not mean your actual day will reflect that. Upset he ran into the woods where he worked on trying to master the basic bunshin (or clone technique) that he would be assessed on upon entering the ninja academy for the first time in two days.

He already had a decent grasp on on the other two basic techniques (or jutsu) he needed to know (namely the replacement or kawirimi technique and the henge or transformation technique) due to scrolls he had found thrown out near the academy.

You see Naruto being the town pariah was rarely allowed to buy anything worthwhile from the various shops in town (and the few times he did he was typically overcharged), and as such to get around this fact he would sometimes poke around the dumpsters and garbage cans for things that others would casually throw away under the justification that they could just buy a newer and better version of it. Most of the time all he found upon looking was stuff that was trash even to him but occasionally he found something of value like the slightly food stained but still usable pair of scrolls on basic ninja tricks which someone had thrown away instead of incinerating it as was SOP, probably under the justification of it being too low value to waste the energy on it (or it was disposed of by a person from the Nara clan but who can say really?).

Naruto being a boy of decent intelligence despite the prankster mask he put on to try and gain attention, immediately realized the value of this and had gone all out with using it for his training. For the most part he was successful in mastering what was in the scroll through hard work but for the life of him could not get the bunshin technique down and it was just starting to piss him off, when he overheard a commotion nearby. When he investigated he found a young girl being picked on by a group of kids for being part of the stuffy but well renown Hyuuga clan who had apparently talked down to several members of the group before. The boys were just about to start wailing on the poor girl when Naruto being the white knight he tended to be stepped in to help her and as a reward for his good deed promptly got the girls beating in her place.

He awoke from his pummeling induced unconsciousness to find himself alone; the girl and her attackers having vanished sometime ago. Naruto seeing that all he had done was for naught had promptly dragged himself home and put the incident out of his mind.

Since that incident Naruto had just gone about his life. He had shown up for his first day of class at the ninja academy and noticed the girl from the park was in the same room as him but the girl had for some reason turned red faced and refused to talk with him. After that he had promptly gotten humiliated when it was revealed that he was the only one who couldn't do the bunshin. A staff of competent and compassionate teachers would have realized that due to Naruto's "tenant" he had far more chakra than most ninjas had and as a result he had difficulty controlling and dispersing the amount of chakra he pumped into his techniques. And thus he ended up overloading said techniques resulting in one overloaded and half dead looking clone instead of three normal looking ones.

Unfortunately for Naruto the academy teachers tended to fall into one of several categories: either they hated him for pranking them in the past and thus they would ignore him, they hated him just for the sake of hating him and would sabotage him, or in the case of the rarest group of them all they did not hate him but were simply too busy to help him.

Regardless of why it was the case they didn't help him the fact was that since no one gave him any aid he had to claw for every bit of progress he could, which given his determination and freakish amount of stamina and chakra actually meant quite a bit assuming he got the right guidance even in the form of a scroll. And while there was the occasional moron who tried to sabotage him Naruto still made progress in spite of this and probably would have gotten a chance to graduate given enough time...

Which at last leads us to our current situation...

Naruto had just been minding his own business training after school like usual when he suddenly found himself surrounded by several kids, some of whom wore leaf headbands and who he recalled leaving the academy with them just a few days prior to his entrance to the academy. Overall since they were obviously new genin and probably hadn't even seen real combat, in a one on one fight they probably weren't much tougher than any civilian bully one might find. Which would have made things okay...save for the fact there were six of them and two of them had impromptu weapons in the form of a bat and a rusty pipe.

It was on closer examination that he realized that two of the younger members of the group who lacked headbands were part of the same group he recalled picking on that girl before while the ones holding weapons and wearing the headbands looked so much like them that they had to be these kids older siblings. As for the other 2 they were also wearing headbands and were either friends of the younger members or perhaps relatives of some sort, but either way Naruto neither knew nor cared about what the truth was. All he knew was he had to run as far away as he could.

He had run for a good 5 or 6 minutes before he realized that the older kids were screwing with him and could easily catch up to him when they wanted to as one nearly did. This would have led to a beating of a lifetime except at the last moment Naruto knocked over a nearby trashcan and the kid slipped on the residue however the other kids kept at him. It was this that motivated Naruto into making the crucial errors in judgement which were now costing him his life.

Now in the majority of time-lines these events either wouldn't have even happened in the first place due to the kids chasing Naruto not even bothering to tell their siblings about Naruto's bout of heroics or alternatively Naruto would have chosen to go in a different direction than he did. That being said this was not one of those time-lines, this was the one where instead of taking one particular side street, Naruto took another and realizing that the only remaining street nearby was cordoned off for some reason, Naruto decided to instead try to lose his pursuers by slipping through a hole in a nearby fence and disappearing into the tree-line behind it.

And this plan of his seemed to work, as after heading a decent distance into the trees he noticed there wasn't anymore footsteps following him. Relieved he decided to rest for a moment and leaned up against a nearby tree for support where the combined exhaustion of his previous training, the subsequent chase, and it just being late in the day caused Naruto to drift off into dreamland.

If only Naruto had known why that was such a bad idea he might have reconsidered his course of action...

You see Naruto hadn't realized that the reason the kids had stopped chasing him was that they had realized just what the place he had run into was and had immediately changed course upon doing so. This was because the place Naruto had run into was known (for good reason) as the forest of death for the fact that no matter how harmless a creature in the forest may seem, it was probably harmful to your health. And additionally the ones that did seem harmful would be difficult even for a mid-ranked chunin to go up against. Hence why it was commonly used as part of the test to see whether or not a genin was ready to be promoted to chunin and why said exam participants were sent in teams. The exam participants had to be on guard for any threat attacking from any angle. And sadly for Naruto not only were not all the most dangerous threats the most visible but a literal army of said threats had caught wind of him...

They were a type of ant who while possessing a proper and long scientific name were best known simply by their nickname of agonizers. They were small only about the size of a human thumb and camouflaged against the dark bark of the forest trees, they had mandibles that acted like a vice trap, they had a sting that made a bullet ant sting look like a bad mosquito bite, they were hungry and there was about 10,000 of them living in the very tree Naruto was leaning against. Within seconds of Naruto beginning to drift off these little man killers got to swarming on him. Naruto's only sign that something was wrong was when he felt something crawling on the exposed skin of his arms and legs. He cracked open one eye...and immediately started screaming before he took off running all the while attempting to shake the ants off.

Unfortunately a good number of the little bastards had latched onto the hem of his clothes and with their vice like mandibles would not come loose. What's worse they were in the perfect position to start stinging which they did so with great gusto. Within seconds their namesake agonizingly painful venomous stings went to work and Naruto doubled over and collapsed from the pain. In desperation he rolled in an attempt to crush the little crawling vermin and succeeded in doing so but also in sent himself over a nearby low embankment and into a muddy stream. For a time he just drifted on it but gradually he managed to drag himself up the muck lined embankment to lay on the forest floor where the full amount of the ants' venom finally started to really kick in.

Now normally several stings from the ants would have mercifully numbed the victim from the sheer pain of it all burning out the unfortunates nerve endings. Sadly unlike any of the ants' previous victims, Naruto had a tailed beast sealed within him who (due to the design of said containment seal) was forced to constantly regenerate all of Naruto's venom induced nerve damage and thus caused Naruto yet more agony. What's worse was that due to the sheer number of stings which were afflicting Naruto, the fox was unable to flush the boy's system of the toxin. The end result being that the sheer toxic nature of the strings combined with the agony of it all so stressed and damaged Naruto's heart that within seconds the boy had been placed into cardiogenic shock. And as his life began to fade away several thoughts began to pass through Naruto's head.

_'I-is this really how it ends? I know I've lived alone all my life but am I really going to die alone too? It's not fair! I never got to do anything or make any friends or anything! I'm never going to be Hokage! I'm never going to eat at Ichiraku's ramen again! I-I'm never going to find out who my parents were...D-dammit all! Please someone if your listening do something! Anything...just please help me!'_

However nobody did answer him and with that, one by one the light in Naruto's mind began to turn off...

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><p>It's cruelly ironic that a boy who had he had enough time and training could have taken down whole armies by himself was being felled by the stings of something that you would probably crush underfoot without sparing a thought to. There was however nobody listening to the boy's silent prayers that day and had things played out normally that would have been the end of our tale. Fortunately for once the principle that sometimes an action done by one person can have unintended beneficial consequences towards another decided to take effect.<p>

Across the psychic energy filled chaotic plane of existence which divided one reality from another and was known to some as to warp and others the fade or twisting nether, something was happening that would soon change the fate of our young protagonist.

Within the heart of the warp (and by extension all existence) lay a place where none but its guardians was supposed to enter under any circumstances. It was the origin point of every reality and timeline known as the Well of Eternity to some and known by innumerable other names to others as well. Whatever one called it though, what was known was this: you could theoretically gain ultimate knowledge from it if it was properly harnessed, no one had ever done such a thing due to most attempting this being flash vaporized by the well's energy before they could even get close to it, and those few who in the past had not been flash vaporized by the well weren't really able do anything as they had promptly gotten their asses kicked by the entities who maintained the balance of reality known as the elder gods. Sadly for most of reality that last fact was not in effect at the moment.

You see said balance maintaining deities were currently dealing with trying to repair the mess that their subordinates the charred council had caused when said council's attempt to cover their own asses over their screw ups on one particular version of earth, had backfired and promptly resulted in them being killed by the individuals they had tried to pass the proverbial buck to at the cost of their own lives. Now forced to deal with a gaping power vacuum and prevent an all out war between the realms affected by their subordinates and their killers deaths, the elder gods were too preoccupied to notice a certain entity and his followers enter the well's area of reality.

His (not that one can really ascribe gender to a sapient multicolored cloud of shifting raw chaos energy) name was Tzeentch. Known as the daemonic chaos god of scheming, magic, change (in all meanings of the word) and hope. Now that last one may seem out of place but in truth when one thinks about it makes sense. After all, when someone wants something badly enough they will do anything to make it possible whether it be make elaborate schemes or deals with untold horrors or simply hope and pray for something with all their might. The reason for his being here was simple: as the chaos god of scheming knowledge of how things would play out was paramount to him and his mission. And while Tzeentch had knowledge on everything that had happened or was going on presently in the realities he dealt with directly when it came to what had yet to happen in those realities the situation was a bit more murky.

Oh sure he could use his powers to scry the future but there was one thing that tended to throw a monkey wrench into his predictions. And that something was a phenomenon known as the Schrodinger effect. Not getting into the technical details behind it, this phenomenon simply stated that if an event were to occur and it had the possibility of another solution then this effect would create branching timelines where things played out according to those solutions. This of course was especially bad given that many events were due to mortals and immortals choosing to make things happen in a certain way and thus made so many timelines that predicting the future longterm was damn near impossible. And thus Tzeentch would have to rely on guesswork and statistics using present data to make decisions about the future. However given how damn chaotic the hearts and minds of living thinking beings were, this was obviously no way to set up ones plans.

However theoretically if one could start at the beginning of all things and every reality not just the ones directly affected by one individual one would have a much better chance at figuring out the future of every world. Hence why Tzeentch was currently trying to tap into the well due to it being the beginning of everything.

His results...less than stellar. Not wanting to risk his own life by plunging into the maelstrom of raw energy Tzeentch had instead been trying to tap into it by substituting some of his mortal and immortal servants in his place. Unfortunately they simply did not have the power to withstand even approaching the Well as the excess energy that spilled out from it would rip them apart before they could even touch it. Which left him with a conundrum of how to go about doing this.

**"My Lord"** echoed a voice. Tzeentch turned his attention from where he was observing the well to where the voice was coming from. The voice as it turned out was echoing from a strange vulture like entity with multicolored feathers and clad in some regal attire. This was Kairos, a greater daemon of the Lord of change variety and Tzeentch's personal vizier.

**"Yes Kairos what is it?"** Answered Tzeentch absently in a strange multi-tonal voice. **_'There has got to be a way for this to work...'_**he thought to himself.

**"My lord I do not mean to second guess you...but perhaps this is the wrong course of action to follow?"** questioned Kairos in a small voice.

**"Oh? How so?"** asked his master

**"Well my lord"** answered Kairos a bit more confidently **"It's just that short of yourself there does not seem to be a single daemon in existence that could withstand the well save for perhaps your rather distasteful siblings and they are unlikely to be of any help in this matter"** He said practically spitting the word distasteful.

At this Tzeentch simply nodded or as close an approximation a gaseous looking cloud of energy could do. Now normally when someone insulted a person's family members one would expect the person whose family is getting insulted would be upset, however Tzeentch's fellow sibling chaos gods in his mind ranged from tolerable in the case of his younger sibling Slaanesh, to annoying in the case of his brother Khorne, and infuriating in the case of his brother Nurgle. So to put it bluntly if they all went off and died in a gutter somewhere the only thing he'd feel was irritation over having to recalculate just how his plans would play out without them.

**"And with that in mind"** continued Kairos **"and not wishing to see any harm come to you as your vizier and your most powerful loyal servant, I must advise you that perhaps it is best that we simply cut our losses and go."**

At this Tzeentch stopped his prior contemplation and after a moment of silence simply nodded. This whole endeavor would be pointless if he kept throwing away his servants. After-all what's the point of knowing your opponents strategy in chess if you don't have enough pieces to play your own counter strategy?

So with that in mind Tzeentch was about to leave...until Kairos said quite possibly the stupidest thing someone could ever say to the chaos god of change.

**"Well I'm glad you've seen the light my lord. After all only a fool would attempt so pointless a task to seek something with no guarantee of succ...awk"** he choked out as Tzeentch's spectral hand suddenly appeared and began wringing his skinny bird neck.

One of the first rules everyone should know about the chaos gods, is that you should never say or insinuate that Tzeentch or an action he has taken was in anyway foolish or you'll find your lifespan dramatically shortened. Something Kairos had forgotten and was now going to pay for dearly.

**"You little, skinny, half-assed excuse for a retarded peacock! You have the gall to call my actions foolish! Well then my most loyal servant perhaps you can do better. After-all you are my most powerful servant so perhaps you will fare better braving the well than your predecessors attempts!"**

Thus summoning a ball of raw magical energy to encase the unfortunate lord of change Tzeentch then proceeded to throw his still pleading servant like a fastball at a baseball game into the Well itself.

The result of this was instantaneous with the screams of pain and terror echoing out from the Well within which the writhing form of Kairos could be seen flapping about. A few minutes later a massive explosion echoed out along with a multi colored flash of energy so bright Tzeentch actually had to dematerialize his eyes to avoid permanently losing them. After that, another burst of energy and a shock-wave occurred which, just as quickly as it came suddenly blasted off through the well and into parts unknown.

When Tzeentch finally re-materialized his eyes he was left stunned over what had just happened until a pained groan suddenly sounded out. A few feet away from where he stood he found the source of the groan. It was Kairos miraculously still alive albeit wizened looking and possessing an additional head.

Realizing that the shock wave had probably alerted the elder gods Tzeentch decided to go while the going was good and telekinetically scooping up the mutated form of Kairos escaped through a summoned portal into the warp where he knew its currents would hide him and his movements. As he did so though he did stop albeit momentarily to wonder what effects the surge of energy he caused might have on things before brushing it off as unimportant.

Something he would sadly learn in time was a piss poor course of action on his part as it would eventually come back to bite him in the ass. For you see just like a stone thrown in a pond the energy and shock-wave though small near its origin point grew as it travelled along through the well of eternity and into the various realities it connected to. And as it grew, and grew, and grew it began affecting more and more worlds. And due to the energy and shockwave being both mostly composed of chaos energy the effects they caused were completely random. From making it rain when it shouldn't have on one world to allowing two completely unrelated realities to fuse together their effects as previously stated were random.

And then as the energy happened to be passing by one reality something unexpected happened. It was a certain world very similar to the one where our protagonist was currently dying on but in which things had turned out differently. On this world as it turns out, Naruto had still lived a difficult life but he had at least had a chance to effect some change. And one of those changes he effected was a major one in the form of a certain city that would have been destroyed in that world's past had it not been for an incident involving him and a bout of time travel. And as it turns out said time travel incident was causing that reality's timeline to be rewritten just as the energy wave happened to graze it.

And that's when things got really strange. As the two energies interacted there was a brief surge of power and a bolt of the intermixed energy blasted out from the merging point to strike a nearby version of reality...

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><p>The village of Konoha was to most of the inhabitants having an unusually nice day. Why was that you ask? Simple, no one had been pranked by the annoying resident pariah and that was a rare occurrence. The sad thing was that had most of the villagers known just why that was the case they probably would have been even happier...<p>

This was something that the dying form of Naruto knew quite well as both his life and very soul began to escape his body and it was something that filled him with both sorrow and anger.

Then just as he thought it was over, a strange bolt of energy came forth from the sky and struck the ground before him and his last visions were of a bright multicolored light before darkness overtook him.

But this was not the end for the boy, far from it. You see the energy didn't just make a pretty light, it also created a strange growing vortex of energy. And as it grew it had a strange effect, causing all the electrical lights near the forest to begin to fade before they shorted out altogether one by one as though the vortex was leaching all the nearby sources of electricity.

But that would be a mistaken belief as the vortex was absorbing not just electricity but every source of energy nearby. Including the life force escaping Naruto's body and followed both by a strange purplish glow lit by two smaller lights from the seal on Naruto's stomach and ending with a red malevolent glow which followed soon after. And then in a flash the vortex was gone and a figure was left in its place a perfect copy of the corpse of Naruto nearby...save for the fact it...no, he...was still alive...

He awoke lost and confused and wondering_ 'What the hell is going on?'_

Desperately he tried to pull his body out of the muck only to slip and slide down the muck and back into the stream where he was washed even further down stream leaving the earlier mentioned body behind. But Naruto neither knew nor cared about this. After once again keeping himself from drowning and dragging himself back onto the embankment all he knew was that his body ached and his head throbbed with even the slightest thought. It hurt so much he just closed his eyes and prayed for sleep to wash away his pain...

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><p>Fortunately for Naruto a deity ignoring his prayers was a good thing this time. Observing the events on this world from a parallel realm several draconic looking deities of pure energy contemplated the unique event that had just occurred and to what possible ends they could use it towards. They were the Elder Gods and they were in a precarious situation, their recent distraction due to the events with their subordinates had prevented them from knowing what was going on until the energy wave had grown so massive even they could not stop it.<p>

And so unable to do anything to stop the energy wave's propagation they had simply let it run its course waiting for the moment for it to end so they could start running damage control.

But they never anticipated it causing this! The creation of a being from the soul of another!

**"What should we do?"** asked one of the figures

**"Perhaps we should simply let the boy's new body disperse?"** said another **"Though the boy's soul successfully bound itself enough to the energy matrix to shape it, the presence of those other souls will soon destabilize his form due to their improper containment within his new body."**

**"No"** answered another of the deities. **"You can sense it as well. All of reality is disrupted and yet some of those worlds affected have been affected in ways which require interaction with the mortals to repair. Ways which the creator has deemed are outside our jurisdiction without us forsaking our power to gain a mortal form. Something which we cannot afford to do at this time as we need most of our available power to help keep existence from just unravelling. No if we are to fix this we require the aid of someone who can interact on the mortal planes of existence. And I believe that boy is the key."**

**"But how are we to aid him?"** asked another **"The boy's form is unstable and the only thing which could stabilize him is some of our power and as you said we cannot afford to sacrifice that much energy at this time"**

This left the deities in a conundrum until one of their number sensed something near Naruto's position.

**"Perhaps"** she began **"Perhaps we do not need to sacrifice much of our power at all. As long as the energy is similar to our own it should fulfill the same purpose."** She said while pointing to something that looked like some buried and overgrown ruin of a temple near Naruto's position.

**"But that's where..."**

**"Awaken it..."** said another elder god interrupting the previous voice

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time for this! Do it now before the boy's form fades away!"** screamed another.

There was some brief hesitation, but then the deities all nodded in agreement. And in that moment and using what little energy they could spare a wave of energy shot out from their forms and struck the temple.

* * *

><p>Within the ruins it awoke...<p>

_**'Awakened? But why?'**_it thought for a moment

'_**Irrelevant'**_ it decided **_'a wielder'_** echoed the thought. It knew that without a wielder it was not only useless its existence was hollow. And then it sensed him... so unique and filled with the same kind of power as those it was meant to help others worship wielded...but he was so broken...it knew what it must do...

_**'Awaken'**_sounded the unspoken command audible only in the thoughts of one...

"What?" questioned the weak voice of Naruto from where he lay in the muck.

_**'Do not die here'**_So simple was the phrase and yet Naruto felt compelled to obey it. Little by little he hoisted himself from the muck until he was shakily standing.

**_'Come to me' _**and Naruto did. One shaky step at a time he followed the voice into the woods until he reached the ruins.

**_'Come to me'_** it echoed again.

And he did putting one foot in front of another and so in this way he headed down the buried ruin steps and into heart of the buried temple.

The walls of this place were overgrown and covered with dirt. And yet the grotesque images depicted by the walls' hieroglyphics were still visible. Images of slaughter and sacrifice towards dark and demonic looking deities. It was horrifying and yet Naruto in an almost delirious state one tends only to get during fever dreams couldn't help but want to explore despite the pain he was in. Down one hall and into another through one room after another each lined with depictions more horrifying than the last.

_**'In here...'**_

He stopped upon "hearing" this and headed into the room he sensed it emanated from. Within was the remnants of a ruined staircase surrounded by a strange runic array and with a raised altar at its summit. He stepped onto the array and suddenly he felt some strange power fill him.

_**'Come to me'**_

One step after another he travelled until he reached the top of the stairs with every step making him feel more complete than before. And as he approached the alter at the top he saw it. A substantially sized book made of something dark and unnatural and bound shut with a simple metal clasp on top of an altar stained with what looked like long dried blood.

**_'Master'_**

That was all he needed to hear in his half delirious state. He reached out and touched it. A surge of power shot through him making him at last feel complete.

_**'What do you desire my lord?'**_

"Home..." he spoke aloud "...I want to go home. Please, I'm just so tired." And with that simple command he vanished from that place along with the tome in a flash of light, the temple ruins of untold millennia at last collapsing soon afterwards. A scant few seconds later in a certain government subsidized apartment the light appeared once again before it dispersed and deposited Naruto's sleeping form on the bed, the book clutched in his hands...

* * *

><p><strong>"Have we truly done the right thing?"<strong> asked one of the elder gods from the place they were observing the previous events.

**"As long as we contact him soon there will not be a problem."** Answered one of the elder gods decisively **"Do not fear, he will not be corrupted so easily even by that black tome. His will is strong and his heart is pure."**

**"For now..."** echoed the ominous sentiments of another.

* * *

><p><strong> AN: And that's the prologue of Eye of the storm. Will Naruto be corrupted by the strange sapient tome? Or will the Elder Gods get to him first? And even if they do get to him first to what ends do they plan on using him? Well whatever the case is, I hoped you enjoy my story. Look forward to the next chapter and in the meantime please review!**


	2. Chapter 1: Mysteries

**A/N: Hey folks, I bet you weren't expecting me back huh? I apologize for anyone who waited around for a new chapter of Naruto: Gods and Demons only to find out I cancelled it but hopefully the quality of this chapter will help to make up for said disappointment, after all this is essentially the spiritual successor to said work.**

**Anyways I would like to point out something, there's one subtle but significant thing that's different than the canon Naruto series. However don't think I just forgot about putting it in, it's absent for a reason that will be explained later in the story. Now with that said dear readers if you don't mind let's get back to the new chapter where we're going to get introduced to some other significant players in this story's plot as well as have some new questions emerge. So with that said, let us begin...**

**Chapter 1: Mysteries**

* * *

><p>Naruto Uzumaki; for various reasons this young child was as noticeable as any five going on six years old orphan could be. He was one of the few blonds currently in the village outside of the Yamanaka clan, he had a set of distinctive whisker birthmarks on his cheeks and he was both the resident town pariah and well on his way of becoming the town prankster.<p>

However on a more personal level very little information could be found about him that wasn't in some way warped by the bias held by the majority of Konoha's population. After some work getting passed said bias though, there was a few bits of info that seemed to be genuine: he was always shouting about wanting to become Hokage, he was a Ramen addict and he supposedly had a close relationship with the third Hokage... and yet even that little bit of information upon close examination would be revealed as a vast oversimplifications of the truth.

The truth was though on friendly terms with the man, Naruto wasn't that close to the Hokage. All things considered, yeah as far as Naruto was concerned the old man running the village was okay since he wasn't outright mean to him, but outside of paying for his bill at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto didn't really know the man that well at this point in his life.

Speaking of ramen, the fact of his supposed ramen addiction also needs to be addressed. Yes it's true that Naruto did in fact like Ichiraku's ramen a lot, but it's also true he wouldn't eat their quite as much as he did if not for the fact it was relatively cheap and for the fact that the owner of the local Ramen stand Teuchi and his daughter Ayame treated him just like he was any other customer.

Lastly about that supposed dream about being Hokage...well the real reason Naruto wanted to be Hokage was that he in his mind didn't haven't any other choice if he was going to live a halfway decent life in Konoha.

Confused? Well let's try and clear that up. See Naruto had realized quite a while ago, even if he did somehow leave Konoha and the crappy life associated with it, he'd be completely lost as to where to go, hence leaving it wasn't really a viable option. And since Naruto decided that while he was here in Konoha he didn't want to be looked down on, the best course of action in his mind was to try for a position which everyone have to acknowledge and answer to him, namely the position of Hokage.

So now with a much clearer picture of our protagonist in mind, we once more turn our attention to young Naruto himself, who was currently awakening in his bed and thinking what he had experienced before was all a crazy dream...at least until he realized his clothes were caked in mud and the rotting remains of forest underbrush.

'_But how did I...' _he began thinking only to stop when upon shifting his weight he noticed he was laying on something. He moved and found that what he was laying on was the same book from his supposed dream.

It was a strange book, no...a tome would be better description given its substantial size. It was bound in some strange black material that was supple to the touch and resembled high quality leather. On the surface of said covering was some kind of strange inlaid pattern of incomprehensible design that seemed to shift depending on how the light hit it. Lastly the whole thing was held shut by a grey metal clasp with a keyhole in it. At first Naruto thought he was going to have difficulty examining it but he only had to touch the books clasp and it suddenly popped open.

Overlooking the obvious security issues with a book whose clasp would apparently just open with a touch, Naruto cracked open the book and began examining it. It's exterior as it turns out was not the only thing that was strange thing about it. Its interior was made of something resembling parchment but there was somethings wrong with it: it had an odd tint to it, it felt too smooth to the touch and were it not for the fact it lacked stiffness he would have thought the parchment had been somehow laminated given how the light shined off it like clear plastic wrapping.

The strangest thing of all was in the way the pages were connected to the book cover. Typically books either come in thread binding for older books or are glued onto the backing for newer mass produced books. Yet close examination revealed there was no evidence of either glue or even thread. No the most disturbing thing about the book was in the fact that they seemed attached to the book covering like an ear would be attached to a human head, as though the pages had simply grown out of the backing.

Despite this rather disturbing feature of the books construction Naruto for some reason felt compelled to look at the book's contents. However his curiosity almost instantly changed to confusion when upon looking at what should have been the first page all he found was what looked like a single rune made of something like silver in the place of words. And so he turned to the next page...only to find the same thing. And again on the one after that, and the one after that. No matter how much he searched all he found was the same thing seemingly repeated for the entirety of the book.

Upon seeing this, Naruto's confusion turned to frustration and then anger with every new page. However, just as his anger was about to reach the boiling point and he was going to hurl the damn book out his apartment window it happened...

As he reached to turn the page he felt as though his desire to see something in the book surged forth and moments later transformed itself into a tangible spark of power that ran across the page. Then suddenly as that spark travelled along the page, the silver symbol on the page seemed to leak a black liquid as though it were bleeding. It then began to flow downwards first forming some strange and incomprehensible runic script and then changing into an archaic but recognizable version of Naruto's language. On the page was written:

_Regardless of whom thou art, know what you hold in thy hands is my tome of power. To what ends dear reader thine use for this power is I care not, for my interest is solely the pursuit of knowledge and the knowing of what should be unknowable. Mine only request for thee before heading forth on whatever path either providence or choice has brought thee to, is that you should remember the one maxim which in my own life I failed to understand:_

_Pride always come before the fall._

And just as quickly as it came, the words written by an unseen author faded away as they were seemingly absorbed by the page leaving it blank. This was short lived though, as soon afterwards something began to appear as though being drawn by some invisible hand as Naruto watched.

It started with semi circle pointing up and then one line after another and another began to be added. Gradually to what ends this act was intended became clear as an image began to emerge. It was as it turns out, a mask which to Naruto looked like a human equivalent of the animal masks worn by the anbu corps, but to one from another world would be thought of as resembling the Greek masks of comedy and drama. However unlike those masks the image's eye holes were closed and its mouth was nonexistent.

Naruto unsure of what to make of this just stared confusingly at image of the mask. And then as if the whole apparently magic book and drawing situation wasn't already screwed up enough the mask as though sensing Naruto's confusion decided to ramp up the horror factor by moving. And not in the way one would expect a drawing would move like in an animated t.v show, no that would be incorrect. In truth the masked seemed to sort of floated on the page as though the page it was on was not flat but a 3 dimensional plane. It was as though the surface of the page was the edge of the glass of an aquarium while the mask was like a fish in the water looking at the visitor's through the glass.

And speaking of contained creatures looking at people, it was at this point that the masks eyes suddenly decided to snap open...sideways. Beneath were a set of horrible bloodshot eyes with slit pupils which were bulging outwards from the eye socket they were placed in, as though the mask had been forcibly clamped onto a head that was too big for it and was crushing the face beneath. And then, just to further add to Naruto's growing horror the mask's eyes suddenly looked upwards to meet his own. There was an unspoken silent staring contest between the impassive image and a fear paralyzed Naruto, before it was finally broken when the face on the page seemed to convulse before being quite literally split by a shark toothed Glasgow grin...

* * *

><p>Outside, the village of Konoha was having what seemed to be yet another wonderful day. The sky above was bright blue without a cloud in sight. There was no threat of attack by an enemy village in sight and everything was going like clockwork. Yep nothing could ruin this day...<p>

"AAAHHHH! FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Not even the screams of abject terror emanating from within the government subsidized apartment complex near the city's infamous red light district.

* * *

><p>We return to find the hero of our tale in no way living up to said title having leaped onto the nightstand near his bed where he currently was staring at the tome and cowering in fear like a woman in an old cartoon would upon seeing a mouse. As for the apparently living tome, it was just looking at him with the same warped looking face on the page as before. Thankfully for Naruto before he could get a chance to pass out from screaming induced oxygen deprivation he "heard" a familiar voice in his mind.<p>

'_**Not that I don't enjoy the site of a mortal cowering in terror at me...but frankly this is just getting kind of ridiculous. Seriously kid get down from there your only embarrassing yourself!'**_

'_That voice...' _he thought to himself. "H-Hey" Naruto began hesitantly while staring at the book "Y-your..."

'_**The voice from the forest?' **_Said the voice cutting him off all the while the evil image seemed to erase and replace itself with one of a featureless white mask._** 'Yes I apologize for scaring you, it's just been a long time since I was wielded by anyone who didn't at least have some knowledge of what I am or could do and I figured I could have a little fun.'**_

"B-but how can you be talking? Your a..." began Naruto only to get cut off again

'_**Well' **_it began in a lecturing sort of voice despite the image's mouth never moving _**'technically speaking I'm not talking, I'm using telepathy. It means that I can communicate with you young one by either sending thoughts to you or receiving them from you ...well so long as you consciously allow it. It's a rather useful ability actually as it keeps my wielder from looking like an insane nut-job for talking to something that should be an inanimate object. Sadly the man who commissioned my vessel's construction (may he rot in hell) also put a compulsion that forces me to tell you that so long as you were not in some way forced or coerced into doing so I can be just handed over to someone else, though (not to toot my own horn or anything) I consider that kind of a waste to do so given what I can offer you...'**_

"Um I'm sorry" Interrupted Naruto still terrified "This is nice and all, but I'd like to point out that there's still the question of how the hell are you talking to me!"

'_**And I'd like to point out that there's still that question of whether your deaf or just plain retarded! **_The book fired back.

'_**Seriously kid I just finished saying I'm telepathic and how wonderful it is that you don't have to talk to my container and make it look like your a freaking nutter bar and your response is to scream your freaking head off! Did your parents drop you on your head at birth or something? As it stands given how you were screaming bloody murder before it's a miracle people haven't broken down the door to find out what's going on in here! Whoever raised you must be as incompetent as hell to let their ward be this...'**_

However whatever train of thought the entity within the book was following before was derailed when it saw its supposed wielder's face lose the terror on his expression and have it replaced with sorrow of all things. As the tears fell from Naruto's eyes the entity could only stare confused for a time before the book snapped itself shut. A scant few seconds later the book began to glow slightly before it literally floated over to place itself right in front of Naruto's face. Opening itself to a blank page the same odd phenomenon of drawing began again only this time the drawing just looked like a normal white mask the addition of drawn on eyebrows and also what approximated a confused expression.

'_**Um...' **_Began the entity not use to taking up the role of a comforting presence. _**'You okay kid?'**_

At this Naruto's response was to turn away and clutch his hands to his face.

"Great"muttered Naruto softly to himself "I'm completely alone, I'm talking to a book which means I must be going crazy, and even though I know all this I can't even...dammit what's that word for things you imagine are there?..."he stumbled trying to recall the term he remembered the Hokage saying_._

'_**Hallucinations?'**_

"Thank you, I can't even cook up hallucinations that are nice to me!" with that, a fresh bout of tears started to fill his eyes.

God only knows how long the kid would have kept on crying but it was at this point Naruto felt something strange on his face. He looked over to see something unexpected, it was as though whatever was in the book had pressed against the parchment of the page next to the one with the mask, stretching and warping it like cheap saran wrap until it reached Naruto's face. It took him a moment but he eventually realized what was going on. Somehow that the parchment had warped itself into a facsimile of a human arm and hand that was currently in the process of wiping the tears on his face away.

'_**If I were a hallucination," **_It began. _**'Would you be able to feel me?...Well actually the mind's capable of cooking up some pretty realistic hallucinations and I recall a drug addled wielder who claimed they can feel things crawling in their skins and...**_' At the now confused look Naruto was shooting through his tear stained eyes the book retracted its "arm" and could almost be felt releasing a mental sigh.

'_**Damn, I'm not good at this comforting crap now am I? Okay note to self never insult people for trying to console others again cause I clearly suck at it...listen kid...I'm...sorry for upsetting you with what I said before...now with that said don't expect to hear that every time you cry. See the thing I've got some ground rules you've got to follow if going to wield my power; one of which is that my wielder must avoid seeming weak. Now normally this would mean I would slap some sense into you for bawling your eyes out, but...just this once I'm going to let it slide but only because we just met and your still...young and all. But yeah, from now on no more crying because now I'm going to be around to ensure you don't. Okay?'**_

The whole previous statement was rather awkward in how it was done and incredibly weird given it's source...and yet to Naruto, the fact that this being was actually going out of its way to try and help him despite barely having met him had an amazing effect of consoling him if for no other reason that this was one of the sincere things anyone had done for him till now, even when taking the Hokage into consideration. Taking that and adding in the fact that to an emotionally stunted and lonely 5 year old child with no friends or real confidants even the slightest bit of perceived kindness was like a drug that would keep him coming back, was it any wonder that the boy now liked the very thing that had once terrified him not moments before? Interestingly, it should be noted that while in another time and place it was kindness like this given by some the few decent villagers that would have led to Naruto walking the path of the protector of Konoha, in this case...well let's just say things were going to get bad for those that had screwed with the kid and move on...

Getting back on track...a moment had passed in silence the expression on Naruto's face was unreadable, and then just as the entity was wondering what it had done wrong this time...

"THANK YOU!"

...It found itself slammed shut and in the death grip of the little hyperactive blond following a sudden tackle and an unexpected attack of hugging.

"Thank you! thank you! thank y-"

'_**Enough already! You're going to break my spine if you keep this up! And what did I tell you about talking aloud!'**_

"Oh! Sor..." Naruto started only to get a look at the now frustrated looking image in the self-opened book in his hands which caused him to correct himself.

'_Um sorry about that...um...what was your name again? I mean you do have a name right?'_

The image changed again this time to a mask with a thoughtful expression.

'_**Hm...well this is an unexpected but welcome change of pace. Usually no one bothers to ask me if I have a name...okay...huh that's funny. Now that I really stop and think about it...I don't think I actually have a name. I mean the people who wielded me gave me various names and titles but none of them were any good in my opinion. And as for the bastard who placed me in this book, and wrote that saying before (may he rot in hell) he just addressed me as "my tome". Though I suppose to make communication easier, I guess you could call me by the name of the being from whence I once was a part of, Xy. Not his true name but seeing as he won't be using it and it's the closest thing to it without you growing 2 additional tongues and sets of vocal chords, it'll do.'**_

Hearing this...rather odd explanation, Naruto could only stare at Xy blankly, before finally answering.

'_A-alright Xy, I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto. Um, I gotta ask what do you mean by the being you were a part of? Or that thing about being placed in this book? I thought you were the book?'_

'_**Heh, well damn and here I thought I'd actually have a completely original experience this time around and here I go and get questions I've gotten more times than I dare to count. Oh well the originality was fun while it lasted...okay then to put it simply I was once part of the consciousness of a very powerful individual. He was (as you have probably already figured out by my earlier comment about his name) not a human, and certain events led to the end of his existence and the creation of mine. More than that though I won't say, at least not until we get to know each other a bit more. Now as to answering your other question, while my existence is dependent on this tome of power and its survival, and I can somewhat manipulate it physically like you saw before, I am not the tome itself. I was actually trapped in here by a particularly powerful individual who I shall not dignify by naming. All you need to know is that by doing so he tied me to the tome, to serve both as a librarian to organize the knowledge this tome posses and a guide to you since you became wielder by being the first to touch the tome after my awakening in creator only knows how precisely long. In that regard, my job is primarily show you how to effectively use the tome's power.'**_

'_Wow that's so cool! _Naruto fired back excitedly '_I mean if you can talk tel...tele...talk with your brain and float and stuff than I can only imagine what I could do...Oh that reminds me what could I do? Could I float like you? or shoot lightning...wait ninjas can do that last one so..._

'_**Sorry to interrupt' **_Xy said abruptly _**'but I would like to point out that while I can't look into your memories or look too deeply into your conscious mind without your permission, I can somewhat sense certain ingrained subconscious thoughts and impulses as well. Like for instance the fact that your forgetting something you usually tend to do at this time?'**_

Naruto paused at this. Though he still had questions to ask Xy (like what the hell kind of creature was he before if he had a name that needed more than one tongue to be spoken right) he put them aside to try and figure out what Xy meant. He looked around the room briefly trying to get a clue but didn't seem to find anything...that is until by chance he happened to look at the clock he had knocked off the the nightstand in his earlier attempt to get away from Xy.

7:45AM

…

…

"o-Oh no! I got class in 15 minutes!"

Running like the devil was on his heels Naruto proceeded to change his clothes, throw all his books in his school bag, and ram a stale cereal bar in his mouth all in the span of about 5 minutes before running out the door. In the process of doing all this though, he made one error by accidentally shoving Xy into his bookbag. Which later events would show as it turns out, that this was actually a good thing...

* * *

><p>"Inuzuka Kiba?"<p>

"Here"

"Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Here"

"Uzumaki Naruto?

…

"Uzumaki Naruto?" the confused voice of the teacher doing roll call asked again. A quick glance around the classroom didn't seem to reveal the distinctive blond mop of Naruto.

"Okay I guess he's not..."

"HERE!" Screamed the desperate voice of Naruto who came crashing through the classroom door. However due to his speed he couldn't stop in time to avoid a bookbag that someone had callously thrown on the ground and Naruto ended up tripping and falling flat on his face.

Of course his classmates response was the usual jeers and taunts one would expect from a bunch of immature kids. A brief flash of hurt crossed Naruto's image before he once again tried to hide it under the mask of someone going for laughs.

"Hah! Hey everyone how's it going!" Naruto said putting on his usual million watt smile and reveling in his classmates' laughter.

"Just take your seat Uzumaki" said his disgruntled looking sensei.

Quickly doing just as the teacher said Naruto headed to his desk in the back corner of the classroom.

As he took out his books for the day Naruto of course noticed Xy's presence in his bookbag but not wanting to let anyone know about him Naruto initially just left him there. However as the teacher droned on with a history lesson about how the first hokage and the clans organized Konoha after its founding, Naruto eventually lost interest and his 5 year old mind decided that getting some more answers out of Xy would be more interesting.

So with that Naruto discreetly reached into his book bag to bring the self proclaimed tome of power out to chat. As he did so though, Naruto noticed something interesting happened; a subtle pulse of energy rippled across Xy's surface mere moments after Naruto's fingers came into contact with the book cover. When it finally finished what remained in its placed was a normal looking black leather bound journal with regular pages and stitched on backing instead of the unnatural grown appearance that Xy held before.

Concerned that someone might have noticed the sudden transformation, Naruto looked around the classroom but since no one seemed to be looking his way he allowed himself to relax. Still Naruto didn't know what to make of this and concerned that this was just another sign that the whole talking tome thing was actually all in his head and he was losing his mind, he decided to test it the only way he could think up...

'_Xy? You there?'_ he mentally asked hesitantly, only to leap back in his chair in terror as a rather pissed off looking evil visage appeared in the books open page as well as the sharp response that echoed in his mind.

'_**Yes, yes! of course I am! No offense kid but where the hell else would I go? I'm trapped in a freaking tome for crying out loud!'**_

The sound of Naruto's chair sliding back from his sudden shift in weight, instantly drew the attention of the entire class. However one awkward laugh on his part and a glare from the teacher later and everybody in the room quickly lost interest in him. With that done Naruto turned to glare at Xy for what just happened. Thankfully Xy upon realizing what had occurred at least had the decency to seem apologetic over his actions.

'_**Whoops, sorry bout that bout of pissyness kid...' **_echoed Xy's voice sheepishly. _**'Being shoved in your book bag kinda made me have flashbacks of being trapped alone in that damn dark hole of a temple for all those years. Ahem...but getting back on track, what's up? Shouldn't you be listening to your teacher and all?'**_

Naruto's prompt response was to mentally scoff at Xy's comment.

'_It's not that big a deal I'm more curious about what just happened to you? Besides why should I care what dumb stuff the teacher says? Nobody has ever bothered answering my question about how what happened a hundred years ago be useful now. So in my mind that just means this stuff isn't that important and there just making us learn it so they can keep us here and make money like that older guy said'_

At this statement Xy's image warped into something resembling disappointment.

'_**Dammit Naruto...you know if we weren't in public I'd smack you. I told you before I can manipulate the book to an extent so is me being able the book shapeshift really that surprising? Now about whether or not all this stuff is useful...I'll admit given your youth and how poor the teacher is at making this seem important I can understand why you'd think that this subject isn't useful, but history is the means by which one can see into the mind of leaders and the people who served under them. You learn their best qualities and their worst ones and you also get to see their actions and how they affected people thus gaining insight as to why people consider them great leaders or great fools. And you also learn what the historical circumstances were that allowed them to come to power in the first place. And since history has a habit of repeating itself one with a good grasp on history can pick up on these trends and exploit them for their own gains.'**_

Naruto's response to this was a look of awe at the intelligence of what Xy said, that is until Xy's image suddenly changed to one of curiosity.

'_**Now with that said I have to ask, who the hell is this older guy you mentioned giving you advice? And what's this about teachers not answering your questions?'**_

At this Naruto shifted almost uncomfortably as though by telling Xy, he was being a rat.

'_Well, it's just that most of the teachers tend to send me out of the classroom if I ask too many questions, and when I asked them why after class ends they tended to tell me the same thing. They always said that they don't have time to answer all my dumb questions otherwise none of the other kids will get a chance to get their good questions answered and we'll all be in the academy for even longer than we all need to be. It's the same thing when I ask them for help. So after a while of getting the same answer I just sort of stopped asking for anything. Especially after that guy gave me that advice. He told me he knew it was all nonsense because he was sensei's brother, and I know it was true because I overheard him talking to sensei a few days later and laughing about how dumb people have to be to believe what their told at face value._

Xy was left stunned, though not originally a human himself he had enough experience with them over the years to know that what Naruto told him was not a normal thing for a teacher to say. It was also clear to Xy that Naruto was too naive to realize the true meaning of what the teacher had said. It was amazing to Xy, he had barely been with Naruto a day and already he was running into one mystery after another. From the moment he sensed his strange presence in the forest, to his apparently living alone in an apartment with no supervision, and now finding out what seemed to be active sabotage by a teacher. This was turning out to be something else.

'**What the hell did this kid do to deserve this?'** He thought to himself.

However before Xy could even contemplate asking Naruto this he was interrupted by another teacher entering the classroom and announcing it was time for them to go outside and practice their shuriken throwing, causing Naruto to let out a whoop of joy and take off leaving Xy behind. Xy was just about to send out a psychic message to get Naruto to come back, but something unexpected happened to change all that.

As Naruto left the classroom another individual chose to enter it just as Naruto's class let up. He was a civilian judging by the lack of headband but at the same time, despite having a bit of a limp, the sure way he carried himself in spite of it indicated that he was probably an ex-shinobi. Unlike the skinny chunin with the brown hair Naruto had as a teacher, the other man was pudgy and his hair while also brown was streaked with grey. In addition to this Xy couldn't help but notice two things about the man entering the room: the fact he looked a lot like the man who taught Naruto, and the look of contempt the man threw Naruto's way as he passed him by. Intrigued Xy chose at this point to play dumb, his image staying perfectly still so as to imitate the doodling one might find in most children's notebooks.

As expected the teacher and the other individual carried on their conversation without ever noticing Xy's presence.

"Well,well, Mr. Hiroshi catching up on all the paperwork you forgot to do while gallivanting around town? He-he! But seriously Takeshi" began the darker haired fellow as he closed the door behind him "how's things?"

"Fine Hiro" began Takeshi from where he was looking over some papers on his desk. At the same time beneath the desk Takeshi discreetly made a gesture which a shinobi could easily recognize as a hand seal. There was a subtle bluish glow both from his hand and at several points in the room. When the glow finally subsided Takeshi nodded and let out a breath he had been holding, before turning to Hiro.

"I gotta love these anti-sound barriers" Began Takeshi "not only do they keep the sound from the other classrooms out, but keeps the brats in the halls from listening in to our conversations."

"Yeah I can definitely see the appeal of them. Though I can also understand why the school's getting rid of them given they're such a surprising bitch to maintain. Which is why we should get the most out of them while we can am I right? Hahaha! Oh man...ahem...anyway, if they weren't so expensive to install in the first place, I would definitely get some for my own home maintenance fees be damned. If only I got the same discount teacher's got for ordering them then maybe I'd...wait I got it! Takeshi, any chance when the guys come to remove the seals you can send them over to my place?"

"Oh I see where your going with this, smooth Hiro, real smooth. Normally I'd tell you to take a hike but...well, I suppose this one time I could spot you. After all I still haven't properly thanked you for helping out with the bratty blonde. Thanks again for that by the way, that little line of crap you sold him finally got him to stop pestering me for help."

"Hey" began hiro mock-dismissively "I don't want you do that just because you feel obligated. You know what I say, what else are brothers for if not for helping you out when you need them."

"Even if it means going against what our hero said to do?" A bitter chuckle echoed from Takeshi's lips causing Hiro to frown and his demeanour to change to a serious one.

"You know I couldn't refuse helping you out on the hard stuff man, your my brother. And would you relax already Takeshi. We've been over this already, you know I looked up to the fourth back during the day too, but I can't just forget mom and the others we lost that night. As far as I'm concerned your doing the right thing concerning…him...honestly why can't people figure out that letting him get too strong is bad news? Hell in my opinion just letting him near the other kids when he barely has control of his own chakra is bad enough. As far as I'm concern Hokage should have given the little shit over to Danzo-dono so he could learn control like the civilians were saying to, but no! The old man and his bleeding heart just had to act up. Dammit! Can't the old man see what kind of a risk he really is! You heard the horror stories coming from the merchants out of Sunagakure! That kid over there is only a little older than that annoying midget is and he nearly leveled his whole village by himself! And what he had in him was a hell of a lot weaker than what..."

"Enough!" interrupted Takeshi "Anti-sound barrier or not, I don't want to risk saying that aloud. Hell even with the barriers we're already pushing our luck as is...you know the third hokage's decree 5 years ago as well as I do. And seeing that neither one of us wants our heads removed from our shoulders this discussion is over!"

A moment passed in awkward silence following that rather stern declaration before Takeshi stood up from his desk before he spoke again.

"Now if you'll excuse me Nii-san, I got to go make sure no one got themselves killed out there." And with that last statement said Takeshi made one more hand seal causing a subtle ripple seemed to pass through the air. Once it passed the two men headed out the door together chatting all the while about other inane things.

On the desk where he lay Xy stirred once more the image of the face on the page now resembling one of contemplation.

'**Curiouser and curiouser' **he thought to himself **'What on earth happened to you little Naruto? What did you do to deserve such hate?'**And with that Xy lost in his thoughts settled in to wait for his wielder to return.

* * *

><p>Some time later Naruto along with the rest of the class did return as expected. Upon reaching his desk, Naruto tried to "talk" to Xy however Xy's only response was a rather odd one.<p>

'_**We'll talk later' **_he said dismissively _**'I have some things to mull over first. Just do me a favor, focus on the lecture your teachers are giving today. I know you think they're boring but if there's one thing I share with the being I used to be a part of, it's that I find those who pass up an opportunity to learn to be...well not the sort of people I like talking with'**_

Hearing that and not wanting to lose the attention of one of the few beings to acknowledge him besides as the pariah or village clown, Naruto quickly consented and began to do just that. Needless to say, the fact Naruto actually seemed to be quietly paying attention in a class he usually either blew off or slept through was noticed and had the effect of unnerving both the teachers and students alike, though none of them had the guts to approach him and ask why he was doing just that.

Come late afternoon the kids bid the teacher farewell as always though this time as they left they shot Naruto more than a few unusual looks from those who knew him. Naruto however didn't notice any of this more concerned with trying to get Xy to respond to him only to be met with silence. Not feeling particularly in the mood to train given the hot weather and the long (at least to Naruto) school day Naruto was left rather confused as to what to do. His confusion though was short lived as it was quickly eclipsed by the rumbling of his stomach. However knowing that he was short on cash and not being in the mood to try and mooch a meal off someone, Naruto decided that he would head home all the while clutching Xy under his arm. After putting Xy on the table Naruto went to get something to eat. He had just put some leftovers to reheat when feeling uncomfortable from wearing his sweat soaked clothing, he decided to change all the while grumbling about all the clothes he was going to have to wash.

It was actually there as he was in the midst of changing his clothes that Xy after floating himself over to Naruto's position (startling him in the process) decided to finally speak.

'_**Naruto may I ask you something?'**_

'_Gah!...what the... oh Xy its just you. Seriously man is a little warning next time before you sneak up on someone too much to ask?_

'_**Actually yes it is, as a potential ninja you have to be aware of your surroundings. Consider yourself lucky, if I had been an enemy ninja ...well you get where I'm going with this I presume?'**_ At the nervous nod Naruto gave, Xy warped his image into a smile before continuing. _**Well now since that is out of the way...I was just wondering about something I overheard one of the teacher's said after when you left me in that classroom...'**_

'_Oh yeah that reminds me' _Naruto interrupted _'Sorry about leaving you in the classroom before Xy I just got overly excited and...'_

'_**Yes, yes your forgiven now please don't interrupt me again this is important.' **_Xy chimed in tersely causing Naruto to clam up.

'_**Naruto I know you didn't really like paying attention in class, but did you perchance hear about something important that happened say, about 5 years ago? Something involving a fourth something or other?'**_

At this Naruto's gained an expression of disbelief.

'_Uh, yeah of course something happened, how do you not...'_

'_**Hole in ground...' **_he answered simply causing Naruto to look sheepish at having completely forgotten Xy's comment about being trapped in the temple, so of course he wouldn't know.

'_Oh right, sorry I completely forgot. But yeah little over 5 years ago the 4th hokage died killing the Kyuubi'_

'_**Really? **_Xy answered rather impressed _**'Huh, he must have been pretty powerful to do that...too bad he's not still around cause your going to need him'**_

'_What?' _Naruto asked confusedly '_why do you say that?'_

'_**Well because as I learned shortly before being trapped in that temple, when it comes to the kyuubi death is only a temporary thing under normal circumstances. Given enough time kyuubi will be reborn and when that happens this whole little town of yours is screwed as he'll probably come back for revenge.'**_

'_S-seriously? _Naruto asked in a terrified manner. When his only response from Xy was that of dead silence Naruto's responded in a manner that confused the hell out of Xy.

'_Oh great it's probably going to do like those horror movie monsters and show up to take revenge on the anniversary of its defeat! As if my birthday couldn't get any worse...'_

'_**Wait, wait, wait, back up! What does your birthday have to do with this?' **_interrupted Xy

'_Because I was born on October 10th! The same day that Kyuubi was killed oh great as if the lack of presents and the weird looks I get every year was bad enough now I have to worry about this..._

'_**Um Naruto' **_Xy once again interrupted '_**not that I don't find your little pity party amusing but I think you need to stop or a moment and check on your meal...it's well, kind of smoking...'**_

'_What are yo-Oh CRAP NO!' _he cursed upon realizing the truth of Xy's statement. As Naruto was attempting to save the remnants of his meal Xy could only stare on with a contemplative look on his drawn face.

_'__**Could it be?' **_Xy thought to himself while scanning the image of his wielder. _**'The hatred, the whisker birthmarks, the birthday on the same day of the attack...it all seems to fit. Hm, only one way to be sure though...' **_and with that thought Xy knew what he had to do...

Following a botched attempt to salvage what was left of his dinner (and a successful attempt keep his apartment from burning down), Naruto found himself silently eating cereal for what seemed to be one too many times for his taste all the while mentally going over what would happen if Kyuubi were to show up. While doing so he had also attempted to pry some more info out of Xy about either himself or Kyuubi, but for some reason Xy had once again reverted to refusing to answer Naruto's questions and had actually gone so far as to float himself out of the room to avoid talking to Naruto. Naruto under normal circumstances, probably would have chased Xy down and kept trying at this route until either Xy finally answered or doomsday arrived, however already exhausted from the long day and wanting to put this whole mess of a day out of his mind, Naruto decided (after finishing his rather unappetizing meal) that it was time to turn in for the day.

He did his usual routine about for getting set for bed and was about to turn in when he decided in his childish mindset that despite his strange nature and rather rude exit from the room, Xy at least deserved to have someone say goodnight to him. And so Naruto was about do just that when he happened about a scene that just seemed quite fantastic...

There in the living room was Xy floating in mid air while being surrounded by all of Naruto's academy textbooks. As they did so with the words of said textbooks seeming to be peeling themselves off the page before being sucked into what looked like a small vortex on one of the tome's pages.

'_What the heck are you doing you crazy freaking book!' _Naruto mentally screamed.

At this the strange phenomenon in the room momentarily stopped, the portal on the tome's pages stopped with Xy's strange face/mask replacing it before he turned around to face Naruto.

'_**Oh hey kid, didn't know you were still up' **_Xy answered quite calmly _**'I was just reading is all. For future reference one of my little abilities is to copy knowledge from any book, scroll, or tome I encounter'**_

Naruto could only stare blankly at Xy, maybe if he had been less tired he might have started screaming something about how the was going to explain his now mysteriously blank textbooks to his teachers...however as though Naruto's brain had already reached its daily allocation of weirdness the only response he gave was to just nod his head at Xy's explanation; a response which was so off from the initial impression Xy had of him that Xy just had to comment on it.

'_**That's it? No more screaming or questioning until my mental ears start to bleed?'**_

'_Too tired...need sleep'_

'_**Ah...I see then. Well since this will probably keep you from screaming your lungs out and annoying me on account of a bad dream, I thought I should tell you that the thing I said about Kyuubi being out their plotting revenge might not necessarily be true.'**_

'_Really?' _Naruto questioned sleepiness momentarily forgotten.

'_**Oh yes,' **_Xy responded _**'however I have to look up one thing before I can say for certain, fortunately I believe the knowledge I seek is right here in this very home. So yes by all means, you turn in for the day and I'll tell you tomorrow if I've found what I'm looking for okay?**_

'_Okay cool...' _Naruto commented in a tired but pleased tone _'well in that case goodnight Xy'_

'_**Goodnight Naruto'**_

And with that the two parted Naruto leaving Xy in the living room not noticing him glancing at his retreating form.

* * *

><p>It was in the middle of the night as Naruto's scrawny 5 year old form lay sleeping on the bed, that Xy finally decided to confirm his suspicions in the quickest way he could. Silently the tome of power floated itself to just over Naruto's head. Once their the tome opened itself to a blank page the image of Xy once more appeared on the parchment page this time with a strange unreadable expression.<p>

Xy had not been lying to Naruto when he said he could only read Naruto's conscious thoughts if he allowed it...the key word here being conscious. If Naruto were to be unconscious though...well that opened a whole new set of things especially seeing as mental barriers were at their weakest when a person slept.

'_**Now then young one, open your mind to me...' **_he mentally ordered the young boy's sleeping mind. A moment later he felt it, the pull of a mental link and in that moment the tome holding Xy seemingly vanished from existence...

* * *

><p>His eyes snapped open and within moments began to examine what was around him. A moment of confusion quickly came and went as Xy momentarily tried to figure out where the hell he was the tome in which he was held spinning around wildly as he tried to take in any and all clues as to his location. The dingy and dank corridors had thrown him off but after a few moments now he understood where he was. The boy's subconscious mind was truly a miserable place something which given his youth should not have been the case. One long dark and dank flooded hallway after another the water dripping down he realized was probably a mental representation of the boy's misery. There were also what seemed to be new things added to the hallways, light fixtures of some sort only half-installed.<p>

Thinking about what he knew about his wielder and his actions in the academy Xy could only assume these lights were the boy's attempts to bring light to his dark life, in other words they were a manifestation of the clown persona Xy had briefly glimpsed while in the academy. As for the lights half installed state, it probably meant this nature hadn't fully established itself and there was time to snap Naruto out of that nonsense. A damn good thing too as Xy had a reputation to protect and he'd be damned if the kid sullied it with his damn childish antics.

There were 2 other things that caught Xy's eyes: one was that the hallways were lined with doorways which Xy could only assume behind which lay the boy's memories. Xy knew though that what he was looking for was not something the boy would recall though. If his hunch was correct than the seed of the boy's misery had been planted long before the mechanisms for memory retention had truly begun to take hold. Now it was just a matter of finding said seed. The other was the wallpaper on the walls, it was brand new and lined with...glowing runes?

'**What the hell is this?' **Xy thought to himself. Actually it should be made clear that it wasn't so much the runes that unnerved him, no he had seen them enough times in other mindscapes to know that they were in fact a manifestation of the bond between the tome and the boy. However the runes seemed to be linked by long silver line like circuitry to some unseen place. And the glowing with power part...yeah that was certainly new and served to encourage Xy to find what he was looking for that much faster so he could investigate this further.

He looked around trying to find a sign as to which corridor to take while simultaneously making a mental map of the place.

'**It looks like a sewer or...a boiler room!' **Xy thought to himself upon sensing the energy flowing through the pipes filled overhead. Now that he knew what he was looking at, he knew what to look for. He just had to look for the right kind of energy and...

'**There you are!' **he mentally cheered with triumph as he sensed the pipe filled with some bubbling red caustic looking energy. Now all he had to do was follow it back to its source and the fun could really begin...

* * *

><p>Deep within the same mindscape something else was up and about, and it was as pissed as one could be!<p>

The Kyuubi no Yoko was beyond furious. Kyuubi had felt the boy's life-force leave the boy's body s well as the subsequent failure of the seal. Sure Kyuubi knew that now death was soon approaching for himself as well but he also knew that unlike his host's death, his death was really only an inconvenience as he would soon be reborn. So knowing that he had to ask... WHY THE FUCK WAS HE BACK INSIDE THE SEAL AGAIN?

No correction, this was not the same seal as before.

The old seal was a cage of sorts the pipes running over head being conduits for which its power could emerge. Said cage was kept shut via a gate of sorts held together with a deceptively simple slip of paper on which written in kanji was the word for 'seal' which actually hid the true mechanism behind its imprisonment. Though the paper tag could either out of desperation or despair on the boy's parts part be ripped off, it was veritable suicide for his host to do so as the sudden surge of kyuubi's power would essentially kill his host (not that kyuubi particularly cared about his). There was a proper way to open the seal using a certain key array...but now kyuubi wasn't so sure that it mattered anymore. Something had happened out there to alter the seal and kyuubi knew it. Whereas before the old seal had allowed him to at least see and hear what his host was doing outside, now all he could do was sense the boy's emotional state.

Also unlike the brass looking cage from before, the new cage was made out of glowing gold and silver looking metals he had never seen before, there was also what looked like a medallion with an eastern style dragon head in the place of the old seal and on the bars of the cage were engraved tiny glowing circuit like runes that led to other's lining the entire room and led down the hallway to the outside. Actually now that he started to think about it though other than the glowing part, the runes looked kind of familiar...almost like the ones used by...

'**...oh fuck!' **he mentally screamed

"**Boy get your scrawny blonde ass down here right now!" **He suddenly screamed in horror.** "Boy I know you can hear me! And you better..."**

'_**He has a name you know' **_echoed a horrifyingly familiar voice in Kyuubi's mind_** 'His name is Uzumaki Naruto. But then again...when a person chooses to throw away their own name, how could anyone presume they would have respect for the names of others?'**_

A sudden feeling of dread forced kyuubi to turn his head. And there at the edge of the room the held the cage floated the only being that had ever terrified him...with a shark-toothed Cheshire grin spread across said being's imprisoned visage...

'_**Isn't that right Kyuubi...or should I say Kurama?' **_asked the floating visage of Xy...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well people there you have it! My latest chapter all for you to read! My apology dear readers for leaving you on a cliffhanger but I'm just trying to ensure you all will come back sometime in the future. So now we have some mysteries before us as the chapter's title said. What is the connection between Xy and Kurama? And what is Xy's true nature given that he not only bent the truth about his abilities but also seems to terrify even Kurama? All this and more will be answered in the upcoming chapters, in the meantime I ask that you all please do me a favor and review the story. I have a busy life and while I love writing, I'm not going to spend as much time writing this if I don't think anyone is interested. So if you want to get more story that much sooner please review. And with that I bid you all a good day!<strong>


	3. Chapter 2: Intervention

**A/N: Before I continue with the story I have to address something that's come up. People have been sending me P.M's asking me exactly what this story is a crossover between and who's going to be in the harem I mentioned in chapter 1.**

**Well as to the first thing it should be made clear that I intend this to be a sort of massive crossover between Naruto and some well known works like Diablo, both versions of the warhammer rpg (fantasy and 40k), Mortal Kombat, H.P Lovecraft's works, maybe a bit of Hellsing, some Warcraft, Brutal Legend and other things from other well known series for flavor. However there are some other things that will be added in as well, things which I know for certain barely anyone has ever heard of (due to both life experience asking people about these things and a distinct lack of stories on the fanfiction site that take place in these settings). Things like the exalted rpg, the rifts pen and paper rpg by palladium games (which is in no way linked to that MMORPG Rift that came out in 2011), and the palladium fantasy rpg. However don't worry I will do my best to explain these settings in the story itself so as to allow everyone to enjoy this story to its fullest potential.**

**Lastly about the harem thing, I apologize if I sound like a jerk, but I once more must reiterate the fact that I DO NOT KNOW who will or won't be in it for certain other than there is no Yaoi. Other than that I frankly don't care at this point in the story. I am sorry but I am sick of reading stories which are not labelled as romance yet as soon as the writer puts in pairings and then all of a sudden the plot starts revolving about getting those people together or about what's going on in said relationships. Naruto isn't even 6 years old at this point and while I will jump ahead to the genin exam eventually, it's going to take a while and even after that point it will be a while for pairings to appear. I'm sorry but to put it simply you're just going to have to wait to find out. The best advice I can give in the meantime enjoy the story as it is and maybe by the time the pairings start to appear you'll find yourself enjoying the story enough to overlook who's paired up with whom.**

**Now with that said let's continue this tale of ours...**

**Chapter 2: Intervention**

* * *

><p>To many it seemed just like any other night in the village of Konoha. There wasn't any news of apparent village wide significance, the streets were as orderly if not better than one could expect for a town of its size and as far as anyone knew there was no threat of attack by an enemy village (well no more threat than usual). All in all nobody could really see any cause for concern or worry and they were more than happy to relax their guard if only just a little...poor fools...<p>

For you see unknown to them, within the confines of a place that technically speaking does and at the same time does not have any truly definable boundaries, something was occurring that was about to alter the dynamic of day to day life in Konoha.

What was this place you ask? Why that's easy, it was within the subconscious mind of one Naruto Uzumaki. There in that place which while existing only within our young hero and at the same time truly cannot be defined as existing in a given amount of space, a conversation was occurring of grave importance between two individuals.

Not that one would ever consider them to be individuals capable of thought given what they were. One in the form of the black tome that held the being called Xy, would be easy to mistake as merely an object rather than a person. The only hint of said tome being more than that was the image of a maniacal face stretched over its pages. The other was according to legend a natural disaster given a form, to be more precise the form of a massive red-orange colored nine-tailed fox with long ears and oddly humanoid front limbs.

Given the size of the latter and the stories could find of the devastation it visited upon Konoha just a few scant years earlier one would think it to be above such things as fear or terror save...so given that, the sight of the infamous Kyuubi no Yoko pressing itself as far back in its cage as it could in a seeming attempt to flee from what some people could've mistaken as a fancy thesaurus...well needless to say it would easily give a person pause and force them to try and figure out what in the name of unholy hell was going on here.

_**'Oh c'mon Kurama old boy' **_Xy said telepathically. _**'Is that anyway to treat an old friend?'**_

**"You are no friend of mine creature! And stop calling me by that blasted name dammit!" **Roared Kurama, better known as Kyuubi to those not in the know in a voice that sounded half furious and half terrified.

_**'Oh so scary!' **_Xy answered sarcastically_** 'Oh whatever will I do? The big bad Kyuubi's gonna get me! Please Kurama as if you could honestly intimidate me. Let me make this very clear...I will do as I please and call you whatever I want, not only because I can, but because I am entitled to. Need I remind you of not only your repeated failures to destroy me, but also the fact that I posses the knowledge to obliterate you PERMANENTLY if I was so inclined. And even if I didn't posses the knowledge to do so I'd still be entitled to given the simple facts I not only helped give you and your brethren names in the first place, but also created you'**_

**"You did no such..." **began Kurama only to be swiftly silenced by what seemed to be a wave of pure malice made manifest emanating from Xy.

_**'Oh but I did' **_interrupted Xy _**'Though admittedly it was not by my hand that your present form was shaped it was MY knowledge and MY power which when wielded not only allowed the sealing of the Juubi but also allowed THAT man to create you! Though if I had known his descendant would have gotten me locked in that damn temple for all these years I would have made sure your predecessor stomped that scrawny little shit-stain of a sage...'**_

**"YOU WILL NOT SPEAK OF HIM LIKE THAT IN MY PRESENCE!" **Roared Kurama whatever fear he felt towards Xy forgotten as he attempted to reach through the bars to attack the tome holding Xy only to shriek in pain as he came into contact with the energized cage bars.

_**'Kukuku...' **_Xy snickered _**'Oh, sorry about that Kurama, I forgot how much of daddy's boy you were growing up. You know what I feel bad, here let me try and help!**_

A moment passed in silence and then Xy began to "speak" again. Only this time the voice was not his own. It was however a voice that while completely alien to anyone alive in the elemental nations today, it was just as memorable to him as Xy's own. But then again, who could forget the voice of the person you looked up to and practically saw as a father?

_**'Oh poor baby... did that hurt? Well daddy's here to help. Let me tell you a little secret about pain, it helps if you try to to put the pain your feeling into perspective. After all, there's no way that could have hurt as much as getting sealed by the fourth Hokage am I right?'**_

Enraged by Xy's mocking usage of the voice of the man he considered his father plus the mention of the man who had sealed him away previously, Kurama's anger rose to levels not seen since his attack on Konoha. Focusing his rage he began to summon forth his chakra towards his mouth and began condensing it into a sphere to form the infamous tailed beast ball attack that had devastated whole cities in its wake. For the briefest of moments the thought of why this seal wasn't barring his attempts to gather his energy passed through his head but it was quickly overwhelmed by his anger towards the being before him. Ultimately as it turns out he got his answer as to why the moment the tailed beast ball impacted the gate. The moment it did so it was not only almost instantly dispersed, but then to Kurama's horror scant moments afterward the massive fox found himself violently blown back by a surge of strange indigo/grey colored energy causing him to slam hard against the back wall.

The force of something his size hitting the back wall at that speed was so intense and violent that Kurama actually lost consciousness briefly. He was up moments later though...just in time to see Xy break into the psychic equivalent of hysterical laughter over what had just occurred...

_**'HehehHAHAHAHA! Oh man now that was just plain hilarious! That's one hell of a seal holding you back. Now that I look at it though...wait...this energy flowing through it seems familiar.'**_

Recovering from what had happened and too lost in his anger to care what Xy was saying, Kurama could only glare in rage before finally erupting into another burst of psychotic rage and thrashing, slamming his body again and again against the gate in an attempt to get through it only to get knocked back. Finally spent and exhausted the demon fox could only collapse in a mix of frustration and pain.

**"H-how" **he began **"How are you even awake? You should still be locked away. And how am I trapped behind this new seal! The boy was on death's door! I should be free not trapped again!"**

_**'Wait new seal?' **_Said Xy, his image taking on a look of confusion before a sudden flash of light unexpectedly put an end to the conversation. Once it passed the presence took in the image of an ominous looking entity of blueish-purple energy in the shape of a dragon.

**"Hello Xy" **said the newcomer **"We need to have a little chat"**

_**'Well, well, well. I had my suspicions once I examined the seal but having one of the self proclaimed Elder Gods here just confirms what I believed. It was you and your brethren who woke me up wasn't it' **_he stated

**"Correct"**

_**'And given by what Kurama said earlier I'm guessing it was also you and your brethren who created this new seal'**_

**"Yes it was us, it was necessary to have him within this boy so as to keep the beast from rampaging as well as to keep anyone in the village from noticing something amiss about the boy"**

**"What!" **Roared Kurama **"Why you...!" **he began only to get cut off again, this time as an enormous blast of energy and killing intent erupted forth to slam into Kurama. To him it was the was one of the most awe inspiring and terrifying thing he had ever seen and it made him whimper in fear. As for Xy, he was less than impressed...

_**'Not that I mind the traitorous furball getting put in his place, but he does raise a valid question; why exactly have you done all this? Your kind and mine haven't exactly been on the best of terms and you suddenly deciding to awaken me and save me from the oblivion that is obscurity while appreciated, is completely out of character. SO, what's the deal?'**_

**"Hm" **spoke the Elder God **" I will answer your question though since this matter does not involve your creation..."**

Before Kurama could retort the Elder gods eyes began to glow causing Xy and the god to vanish and leaving Kurama to roar in rage at what had just passed.

Some moments later the two of them exited the mindscape and reappeared in

a black void of a space.

_**'Pocket dimension huh? Not bad, a bit Spartan for my tastes but not bad. So then my answers if you would be so kind.'**_

**"Watch your tone parasite, you are no longer the being you once were! Now to answer your earlier questions, you're quite right and had things stayed the course, that destiny had planned I can assure you that you would have stayed in that dank hole of a temple and NEVER seen the light of day again. That being said though, things are not the same. To make a long story short, while you were dreaming some upstart fool whose identity has yet to be determined apparently tried to tap into the Well of Eternity while we were distracted with other matters and ended up causing an enormous mess of the multiverse. And while we have managed to contain the most serious of the issues caused by this there are others which we cannot fix..."**

_**'Because those would require a level of involvement in mortal affairs that the creator wouldn't allow.' **_Finished Xy. _**'See, that's what happens when you play the good children and always listen to daddy instead of striking out on your own.'**_

**"Yes because that worked swimmingly for you and your ilk. That being said you are correct about our being barred from these affairs and for that we require someone on the mortal plane."**

_**'Ah...I see now. Now your involvement with the boy makes sense. You need someone to do your dirty work and you chose him. But that still doesn't explain why you chose this boy.'**_

**"That is not so difficult to understand once you realize the nature of this boy." **And with that the Elder God's eyes began to glow causing an orb to appear, within which was playing all the events that had happened in the last couple of days to Naruto.

_**'And now the final pieces fall into place.'**_

**"Yes" **spoke the elder god** "The facts behind the creation of this boy's new body has changed his nature from a mere human into that of a living nexus of temporal and chaos energy. As such this will allow him to easily move between the realms and get to where he needs to go. Plus with your energy he would be powerful enough to face whatever forces he might come up against."**

_**'So in other words your exploiting the fact that the contract seal that binds me to the person who picks me up also shares some of my energy with my holder to stabilize him. Additionally your also counting on the fact that because of the nature of this vessel I'm in, I'll be forced to aid him in learning how to use my powers against my will. However this whole plan to use him as your fixer is based on the kid being willing to actually do as you say, which I could easily keep from happening with a few words to him. So then the question then is what are you willing to offer so that I actually play along and convince him to play your little game?'**_

**"Your freedom from this container... though with certain conditions."**

_**'What...?' **_muttered Xy, disbelief and hope simultaneously filling his voice.

**"Yes" **answered the Elder God** "As much as we despise doing this, my brethren and I have agreed that in return for assisting us in getting the boy to agree to help us and in return for your assistance both in teaching him to control his new powers and in resolving the issues with the multiverse, we will free you from this vessel on the following conditions. 1). Neither you nor the boy may do anything to threaten the multiverse as a whole, 2). Neither you nor the boy may attempt to fuse multiple realms into a single realm without gaining our or another higher powers express permission 3). Neither you nor the boy may not do anything to harm either any or brethren or our servants (in your case this includes the boy) without our or a greater power than ours' express permission, 4). This world and those inhabitants who get in your way while performing attempting this mission are free game for you to use as you see fit if the boy chooses to let you do so. And lastly 5). the boy must agree to these terms WILLINGLY. Do I make myself clear?"**

_**'Crystal and I agree, though I am rather surprised. I would have thought you would have put in a clause to limit what I was to teach the boy to...the lighter arts.'**_

**"I will admit that what you say did cross our minds. However the situation at hand requires that the boy have every tool possible available to him. Limiting him to just the lighter arts would risk him not having the strength to face the challenges at hand. As for the risks of his being corrupted, we are confident that his will is strong enough to resist such things; our examination of other versions of this child seems to support this. And even if he were to in some way be corrupted, as long as he does not do anything to risk the balance of existence then it is not our concern as to what he does."**

_**'Well, it's good to see that since I was last awake you and your brethren seem to have gained a streak of pragmatism to you. Alrighty then I guess I'll get to seeing if I can't go about getting to kid to go along with your plan.'**_

**"Very well, though there's one last thing I should point out to you. After some calculations my brethren and I have determined that we can only afford to wait for the boys decision for a limited amount of time, otherwise we will have to move on and try to find someone else to take his place. As such you only have one year to convince the boy to sign on or the deal expires. Get it?"**

_**'Got it'**_

**"Good"**

And with that the Elder God's eyes once more began to glow.

* * *

><p>Moments later a flash of light filled the space and when it passed it revealed that Xy was once more back in Naruto's room (though it appeared that some time had passed since he had entered his mind judging by the lightening sky) with the Elder God nowhere in site. Deciding that now was as good a time as any to get started Xy was about to go wake up Naruto when the sound of the front door sliding open caught his attention. Quickly levitating himself over to the bookshelf Xy slid himself into place and played dumb as a feminine figure clad in a black robe slinked into the room silently. Worried that the figure was going to hurt his ward Xy simultaneously cast a remote viewing spell so as to monitor the figure as she moved about while simultaneously charging up an offensive spell just in case.<p>

However it was as it turns out, all for naught as all the mysterious figure proceeded to do was to briefly look into Naruto's room watching him for a time and then proceed to turn around. She then headed into what passed for a dining room in Naruto's small apartment and reached into her cloak. A moment later the figure took out a small envelope filled with ryu bills and left it on the dining room table before turning around to leave.

Curious to discover who this mysterious benefactor might be and not willing to wait for Naruto to wake up Xy quickly went through his options. Remembering a method to extend his remote viewing spell Xy then set about putting it into motion just as the figure passed the bookshelf he was on.

_Thump_

The figure stopped in her tracks, and turned. Spotting the book which had apparently fallen over and not wanting to leave any trace of her presence, she picked it up and slid it back into place never noticing a tiny spark of energy land on and fade into her hand. A few moments later she left the home just as silently as she left.

Shortly afterwards Xy removed himself from the bookshelf

_**'Now then my dear, let's see exactly who you are' **_and the spell was cast.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Some minutes later.<strong>_

Young Sasuke Uchiha was just heading back to bed after having got up to use the bathroom when he heard the sound of the front door sliding open and saw a black cloaked figure entering.

"Kaasan?" said Sasuke recognizing the figure as that of his mother as she removed her cloak.

Immediately the figure turned to the sound of the voice revealing that it was indeed Mikoto Uchiha, mother of Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha and wife of the clan head

"Oh sochi! What are you doing up?"

"I had to go to the bathroom. Why are you..."

"She was out doing an errand for me, isn't that right dear?" interrupted a voice from down the hall. Leaning up against a wall with a stern visage on his face was none other than Mikoto's husband and uchiha clan head Fugaku Uchiha.

"Um yes that's it, I had to take care of something for your father is all. Now run along to bed sochi."

A little concerned but not having any reason to linger Sasuke decided it was best to head back to bed, leaving his mother and father alone in the hallway.

"Thank you for covering for me with Sasuke I..."

"I told you to stay away from him Mikoto! The people are already suspicious about the clan and the events of that night, I don't need them finding out and accusing the Uchiha clan of trying to manipulate him!" said Fugaku in as stern a manner as he could without raising his voice.

"And what am I supposed to do Fugaku! Just ignore the fact that my friend's son is languishing in that third rate excuse of an apartment all alone!"

"Your DEAD friend's son Mikoto! I know you care but we've been over this. You have two children of your own and clan responsibilities to worry about and if this gets out to the public...please...I'm sure wherever she is, appreciates what you've done for her child, but she wouldn't want you to risk your family's safety, even for her own."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Back at Naruto's house<strong>_

_**'Well, that was certainly intriguing. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this woman, she could be useful in the future.' **_

_'...hey Xy, still up doing your freaky reading thing?_' spoke a sleepy eyed Naruto wearing pajamas and a sleeping cap which bore a resemblance to a dog.

_**'Ah Naruto, just who I wanted to see. Though I have to ask, what are you doing up so late anyway?'**_

_'Bathroom'_

_**'Figures, seems everyone in your age group has roughly the same time keyed up to have their bowel movements at.'**_

_'Wait what?'_

_**'Never mind...listen some things have come up and you and I need to have a little chat...'**_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm back! I would have made it longer but I figure you people have been waiting long enough. And speaking of waiting, you want to know why you haven't gotten any updates...prioritization. I have a life and I can't be bothered to spend time on this if I don't think I'm going to get results! I'm sick of some dumbass 11-year-old rookie writing some generic crap at a quarter the quality of my stuff and somehow managing to get 100 reviews whereas I'm lucky to get a DOZEN! Half of which I had to ask for! So in one last desperate ploy to get reviews I now I am now going to resort to the following threat...**

**Review dammit or I'll delete all my current stories and leave you with nothing but a crossover I've kept in reserve for just such an occasion... A crossover with a pilot for an adult animated show that was so bad it never even got a commercial release! And no I'm seriously not bluffing about that either, its called Robin and the Dreamweavers and thanks to my lust for the obscure and esoteric I have tracked down one of the few copies of it in existence and I'm not afraid to use it and scar your collective psyche's with its crappiness for life! So review damn it! OR ELSE!**


	4. Bad news

Hey folks, long time no see. Sorry for the lack of updates on my stories but things have been rather hectic what with me getting a job and whatnot. Now in case your wondering why this is being called bad news...well because it is. At least for this story in it's current incarnation. Yes I'm sorry to do this to you all but as it stands I can't in good conscience continue the story on the path it was going and so I'm forced to once more hit the reset button.

The reason for this is actually linked to the other reason of why it's been so long since you heard anything from me. While it is true that I have been busy with work and life another big part of the reason I haven't updated my stories in so long is that I was waiting on some new material from the company Palladium books to come out that was supposed to give more info on something called the Minion War. For those of you amongst my readers who are not in the know about said war, it is basically a huge multidimensional smack-down between these 2 demonic armies from places called Hades and Dyval which I was planning on integrating into my own stories. Unfortunately said material took FAR longer then I thought it was going to during which time the plot line of Naruto took some...odd turns. For instance the whole true nature of Zetsu, where the Ten Tails really came from and just revelations of who was manipulating whom in the story. The end result being that SEVERAL plot threads that I was planning for this story have been rendered invalid or just plain unworkable and as such I've basically discovered that due to these changes in Naruto canon I have essentially written myself into a corner plot wise. True I could continue with the tale as is but there's something else that has come to my attention.

Namely that upon re-reading my story I realized something which one of my reviewers pointed out was true, the terms of the deal that Xy struck up with the Elder Gods was horribly limiting. Not just to the character but for me as a writer and that it would be a better idea to have Xy functioning as a free agent rather then being chained by a third party.

Apologizes for the inconvenience. I will do my best to get the new version of this story up as soon as possible. As for the old version...I'm not sure, I might keep it up or I might just end up deleting it. If you'd like me to keep it up then just give the word otherwise I'll just delete it at the end of the month.

Sincerely,

Lord of Daemons


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